realthog

Over at Alternet Liliana Segura has the story (readable in full at http://www.alternet.org/story/77505/):

McCain Torture Endorsement Lost Amid Media Sex Scandal Frenzy

Upon being confronted with The New York Times' "bombshell" report of his too-cozy relationship with a "lady lobbyist" during his last presidential campaign, GOP contender John McCain took a page from the Bush playbook and blamed the media.

[. . .]

In some ways, McCain is right: The media should be blamed -- but not just for shoddy reporting of a rather sexless scandal. They should be castigated for ignoring a much more important and damning story about the so-called principled maverick -- one that has actual implications for American democracy.

Mere hours before The New York Times broke its story on Wednesday, McCain made a totally unrelated -- and apparently un-newsworthy -- statement to reporters, in which he called for President Bush to veto the Senate's anti-torture bill. He talked in support of "additional techniques" for interrogation, sounding ever more in line with the White House's official stance. McCain, the "war hero" who has been an outspoken opponent of torture, voted against the bill, which would restrict the CIA to some 19 interrogation techniques listed in the Army field manual.

Now, having passed the Senate, the bill is headed for a veto at the hands of President Bush. For a man who would be president -- and who is practically giddy at the prospect of being Commander in Chief -- McCain's push for a veto is ominous.

His evolving position on torture should be deeply troubling -- much more so than the current scandal. Yet it has received a fraction of the media attention that has already been devoted to whatever he did or did not do with a blonde lobbyist eight years ago.

Meanwhile, right-wing McCain supporters and critics alike are making so much noise chattering about family values and attacking the Times, McCain's about-face on torture is likely to stay buried. [. . .]

When the history books are written, it's possible that Il Buce's most shameful achievement will be judged to have been his induction of the US to the Torture States list alongside the less salubrious of the Third World countries. It seems clear McCain would like to keep us on that list.

Should we be surprised? Not really. McCain's reputation for straight talking is one that he and his campaign managers invented and which is endlessly bolstered by a mainstream media corps too effing stupid and/or lazy to check the most basic of facts; the truth is that McCain straight talks with forked tongue.

On the specific issue of torture, his parallel reputation as a staunch opponent is built not just on sand but on quicksand: I can recall seeing a picture of McCain smiling smugly along with his President as he talked about his triumph in seeing into law his anti-torture bill. What I didn't discover until the following day was the astonishing hypocrisy of the man: he knew at the time the picture was taken that Il Buce had appended one of his infamous, unConstitutional "signing statements" to the Act saying he was going to ignore it -- that it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.

For reasons of the most scabrous political self-interest, rather than hitting the roof McCain kept mum about this, hoping -- with all too good a cause! -- that the mainstream media and hence US public would remember his "triumph for humanity" and forget that it was all just a charade, a disgusting piece of exploitation. All respect I had for him died at the moment of that discovery.

Clearly for McCain as much as for Il Buce, the torture of other human beings is just a bagatelle. If supporting torture might gain him some brownie points from the limbaughtomized right wing of his party, then he's your man to support it! If he thinks he might get some political capital out of claiming opposition to this barbaric practice, he'll po-facedly intone about his own horrific experiences as he pretends to oppose it.

Ugh!